wi: Rising Sales Prices Are Excellent News For Homeowners Across America - 03/27/13 08:23 AM
Rising Sales Prices Are Excellent News For Homeowners Across America The National Association of REALTORS® released its monthly Existing Home Sales report on March 21 and gave investors and home sellers something to cheer about. 
While February sales of existing homes didn’t meet investor forecasts of 5.00 million homes sold on a seasonally adjusted annual basis, the actual number of existing (previously owned) homes came close at 4.98 million homes sold.
This number surpassed January’s revised reading of 4.94 million homes sold by 0.8 percent.
Sales of existing homes comprise approximately 85 to 90 percent of homes sold in the U.S.
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wi: NAHB Housing Market Index Shows Builder Confidence Slip In March - 03/20/13 01:05 AM
NAHB Housing Market Index Shows Builder Confidence Slip In March  
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) released its NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index for March on Monday.
The HMI measures builder confidence in the market for newly constructed single family homes.
A reading of 50 for the NAHB Housing Market Index (HMI) indicates that more builders are confident of housing market conditions for new single family homes than those who are not confident.
Home builder confidence fell for the third consecutive month with a two-point drop to a reading of 44 in March.
Several Factors Create New Home Bottleneck
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wi: Great Staging Tips To Set A Buyer’s Mood At Your Home For Sale - 03/19/13 03:51 AM
Great Staging Tips To Set A Buyer’s Mood At Your Home For Sale   Staging is the art of preparing your Isanti home for sale before showing it to prospective buyers.
The point of staging is to highlight the house’s strengths, downplay its weaknesses and make it more appealing.
With the right decorating techniques, you can win buyers over the moment they step through the door.
Below are a few staging tips to help make your house irresistible to potential buyers.
Put Everything Away
The first step is to put away anything that is not essential. This will open up the … (2 comments)

wi: Metro Area Home Values Continue To Shine - 03/06/13 12:24 AM
Metro Area Home Values Continue To Shine   The Standard and Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released February 26 show strong growth in the majority of 20 cities and corresponding metro areas tracked during 2012.
The S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Indices measure home prices nationally and locally by compiling data from individual indexes including a 10-City Composite Index, a 20-City Composite Index, and a 20-Metro Area Index that includes metro areas for each of the 20 cities used in the 20-City Composite.
Metro Areas Show Nearly Universal Growth
19 of 20 metro areas showed higher home prices in Q 4 2012 … (0 comments)

wi: Simple Tips To Keep Your FICO Credit Scores High - 09/11/12 12:29 AM
Simple Tips To Keep Your FICO Credit Scores High   For today’s home buyers and refinancing households, the value of “good credit” has never been higher.
Mortgage approvals hinge on your FICO score, as does your final mortgage pricing.
If you’re shopping for a home in Minnesota , therefore, or contemplating a refinance, be aware of how everyday credit behaviors can affect your FICO. Even small events can make a big impact.
Here are some common-sense steps to help improve your credit score.
First, keep a “cushion” on your credit cards.
30 percent of your credit score is linked to “Amount … (6 comments)

wi: What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week : September 4, 2012 - 09/04/12 02:30 AM
What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week : September 4, 2012   Mortgage markets improved last week for the second consecutive week.
With no news coming from Europe, Wall Street was focused U.S. economic data and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s planned public speech from the Fed’s annual retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Rate shoppers and home buyers in Cambridge caught a break.
The housing market was shown to be improving last week, as was the average household income nationwide — two events which would have typically moved Minnesota mortgage rates higher. But, because the Fed Chairman used his speech to … (1 comments)

wi: What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week : August 27, 2012 - 08/27/12 01:55 AM
What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week August 27, 2012   Mortgage markets improved last week. Mixed data highlighted the U.S. economy’s slow, steady expansion; the Federal Reserve changed market expectations for the new stimulus; and, sovereign debt concerns moved back to the forefront in Europe.
Conforming mortgage rates fell last week for the first time this month, breaking a 4-week losing streak that had stymied would-be refinancing households in Wisconsin and nationwide.
Mortgage rates had been higher since the start of August.
In published minutes from its July 31-August 1, 2012 Federal Open Market Committee meeting, the Federal Reserve revealed … (0 comments)

wi: Existing Home Sales Rise To 4.47 Million - 08/23/12 01:03 AM
Existing Home Sales Rise To 4.47 Million  
Home resales climbed 2% last month as the housing market continues its measured, steady recovery. According to the National Association of REALTORS®, Existing Home Sales rose to 4.47 million units in July on a seasonally-adjusted, annualized basis.
An “existing home” is a home that cannot be classified as new construction and, despite a reduction in the national homes inventory, the number of previously-occupied homes sold in July was higher by 10% as compared to one year ago.
The Existing Home Sales also reported the folliowing :
First-time buyers accounted for 34% of all … (1 comments)

wi: What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week : August 20, 2012 - 08/20/12 02:22 AM
What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week : August 20, 2012   Mortgage markets worsened for the third straight week last week as the U.S. economy showed new signs of expansion, and as little new news came from Europe.
August has been a rough month for rate shoppers. Since the start of the month, mortgage rates in Isanti have climbed steadily and are now at a 7-week high.
According to Freddie Mac’s weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey, the 30-year fixed rate mortgage is 3.62% nationwide, on average, for homeowners willing to pay 0.6 discount points plus a full set of closing … (0 comments)

wi: Should You Lease Or Buy Your Next Car? It May Affect Your Mortgage. - 08/14/12 04:05 AM
Should You Lease Or Buy Your Next Car? It May Affect Your Mortgage. Should you lease a new car, or should you buy one? Like most financial questions, the answer depends on your situation. For some people, leasing a car presents distinct economic advantages. For others, buying a car is the way to go.
There’s plenty of online material to help you choose your optimal path, but this 3-minute piece from NBC’s The Today Show serves as an excellent summary. In it, you’ll learn about the basics of leasing a car, and for whom leasing can be a great fit. You’ll … (0 comments)

wi: Improving Market Index Spans 32 States, District Of Columbia - 08/14/12 03:16 AM
Improving Market Index Spans 32 States, District Of Columbia  
80 U.S. metropolitan markets are showing “measurable and sustained growth” this month, according to the National Association of Homebuilders’ Improving Market Index. It’s good news for the economy and good news for housing.
The NAHB’s Improving Market Index is meant to identify U.S. markets in expansion. It’s a composite of the three distinct data sets which, as a group, present a more holistic view of a given city’s growth :
From the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the IMI tracks employment figures From Freddie Mac, the IMI tracks home price data From … (3 comments)

wi: Mortgage Standards Stop Tightening; Lending Soon To Loosen? - 08/14/12 03:13 AM
Mortgage Standards Stop Tightening; Lending Soon To Loosen?   As another signal of an improving U.S. economy, the nation’s biggest banks have started to loosen mortgage lending guidelines.
As reported by the Federal Reserve, last quarter, no “big banks” reported stricter mortgage standards as compared to the quarter prior and “modest fractions” of banks reported easier mortgage standards.
The data comes from the Fed’s quarterly Senior Loan Officer Survey, a questionnaire sent to 64 domestic banks and 23 U.S. branches of foreign banks. The survey is meant to gauge, among other things, direct demand for consumer loans and banks’ willingness to … (0 comments)

wi: Closing At The End Of August? Plan Ahead For Labor Day Weekend - 08/07/12 03:21 AM
Closing At The End Of August? Plan Ahead For Labor Day Weekend. Planning to make a late-August purchase closing? Keep an eye on your calendar. The last Friday of this month coincides with Labor Day Weekend, which may make for a complicated, end-of-month closing. If you’re planning to close on, or around, August 31, 2012, plan ahead. Leaving anything to the proverbial last minute could delay your closing by hours in a best-case scenario, and by days in a worst-case.
This is because Labor Day is among the most popular vacation times of the year in the real estate, title and … (0 comments)

wi: What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week : August 6, 2012 - 08/06/12 02:02 AM
What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week : August 6, 2012   Mortgage bonds worsened last week in a news- and event-heavy week. A series of non-action from the world’s central banks — including the Federal Reserve — plus a better-than-expected jobs report pushed mortgage rates to their highest levels in more than a month.
Conforming mortgage rates rose in Cambridge and nationwide last week.
The week wasn’t without drama, however. Mortgage rates carved out a wide range.
When the week opened, mortgage markets were in a rally mode. The European Central Bank had previously said that it would do whatever … (2 comments)

wi: What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week : July 9, 2012 - 07/09/12 03:36 AM
What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week : July 9, 2012   Mortgage markets improved last week as concerns for U.S. economic growth wrestled attention away, albeit temporarily, from the Eurozone. Mortgage bonds improved to record prices, lowering mortgage rates across Minnesota and nationwide.
The biggest news of last week’s holiday-shortened trading week was the Friday release of last month’s Non-Farm Payrolls report.
In it, the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the economy added 80,000 net new jobs in June, and that the initial tallies for April and May were overstated by a combined two thousand jobs. Wall Street had … (0 comments)